PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- John Joseph DeBlase was high on pills when he dumped the lifeless bodies of his children, one in Citronelle and the other in Vancleave, Miss., Jackson County, Miss., Sheriff Mike Byrd said Monday.

"That's what he told us Saturday when he was leading us through a rural area just north of Vancleave," Byrd said of the all-day search that spanned 12 square miles near Miss. 57.

"He said he was messed up on pills when we asked him why he couldn't remember exactly where the child was," Byrd said.

DeBlase is scheduled to be arraigned in Mobile County District Court on Wednesday, according to Assistant District Attorney Jo Beth Murphree, who is prosecuting the case.

DeBlase appeared before Mobile County District Judge Charles McKnight on Monday, where total bail was set at $206,000. Murphree said DeBlase would have to come up with $50,000 in cash before he could get out on bail.

"I told the judge that he was a flight risk and that the bond needed to be very high," Murphree said. "I think he's an extreme flight risk."

Mother of missing children speaks

Corrine Heathcock, the mother of Jonathan Chase DeBlase and Natalie Alexis DeBlase, said Monday that she is holding out hope that her children will be found alive.

"Until the police come to me and say they have their bodies, I won't believe it," said Heathcock, 27.

See the Press-Register and Mississippi Press tomorrow for an interview with Heathcock.

On Sunday, Mobile investigators searched for any sign of Jonathan Chase DeBlase, 3, and his older sister Natalie Alexis DeBlase, 5, for more than eight hours in the far northwest end of Mobile County.

So far, all searching has been unsuccessful, authorities said.

Byrd said Jackson County investigators have narrowed the area to two miles based on information provided by DeBlase. "We're ready to go and help find these children whenever Mobile police needs us to," Byrd said. He added that the search should resume in Mississippi later this week.

Authorities said that the two children haven't been seen since they moved to Kentucky with their father and stepmother, but the exact time appears to be unclear. Mobile Police Chief Micheal T. Williams said late Monday that family members have told detectives that the last time they saw the children was in February.

DeBlase, 27, was apprehended in Milton, Fla., late Thursday by a Santa Rosa County, Fla., sheriff's deputy responding to a report of a suspicious person, according to previous reports.

DeBlase was brought to Mobile on Friday, where, Mobile police officer Christopher Levy said, he was questioned by Mobile law enforcement and then charged with two counts each of aggravated child abuse and abuse of a corpse. Stepmother Heather Keaton was arrested last week in Louisville, Ky., and faces two counts each of willful abuse and neglect of a child, Levy said.

Byrd said Keaton and DeBlase are each accusing the other of killing the children, but both have agreed that the body of at least one of the children was left in Vancleave -- probably the small boy -- and the girl was dumped in Citronelle.

Last week, Keaton waived an extradition hearing, Levy said.

Keaton has a court appearance scheduled for Friday in Louisville in connection with the warrants from Mobile, said Bill Patteson, spokesman for the Jefferson County, Ky., Attorney's Office.

Authorities were alerted in late November that the children were missing after Keaton asked Kentucky police for a restraining order against DeBlase, Levy said. The couple had been living in Louisville but had separated, Levy said, and DeBlase went to Florida.

Keaton alleged in her complaint to Kentucky police that she was fearful of DeBlase because of events that took place six months prior in Mobile, Levy said. She told authorities that the children were killed in Mobile, Levy said.